Yahav Zohar / March 2026

Israelis whose work is not considered “vital” were mostly at home for the first days of this war. Like the first days of the pandemic, it was a good time to tend one’s home and garden, clean out drawers and closets, and catch up on correspondence. 

By now, day 11, most have gone back to work. War has, again, become our background.  Every few hours, we get alerts on our phones, missiles from Iran en route. A few minutes later, the alarm sounds, sending us to the safest nearby space, an actual air raid shelter or, often, lacking that, just whatever seems safest: a basement, a stairwell, the room with the fewest windows. Soon, we hear the thuds, trying to make out which are incoming missiles and which are interceptors, which exploded in the air, and which hit the ground.  A few minutes later, the all clear is given, and people go about their business. 

For Israelis, this is another chapter in a long string of emergencies, sirens, and sheltering in place that seem designed not to kill us but to slowly break our spirit, rob us of our patience and attention. Some fifteen  Israelis have been killed by Iranian missiles these last ten days, but millions have gone without a full night’s sleep.

War becomes a space with no time, a direct continuation of the 12-day war of June, which ‘obliterated’ the Iranian nuclear program that has somehow grown back and is being bombed again. The lack of sleep, the vague generalized fear, mostly serve to distract, to stop people from thinking

For Iranians, this is a war devastating their country. Israeli and American bombing have destroyed whole sections of Iranian cities, and over 1200 have been killed, including more than one hundred girls whose elementary school was targeted in Minab. What was introduced as a war to liberate the Iranian people from an oppressive government has turned against the people, setting fire to Tehran’s fuel reserves and turning the city skies black with smoke, with poison rain. Over one hundred thousand have fled the city. For the Lebanese, too, this is a catastrophe, with hundreds killed by Israeli bombing and hundreds  of thousands fleeing their homes in the areas near the Israeli border, and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which have come under intense Israeli bombing. 

The official goals of the war, says an aide to the Israeli prime minister, are secret. Do they even exist? As long as there is war, the prime minister and his minions can appear on TV looking important and knowing, and no one will ask them pesky questions about his corruption trial or the systematic weakening of the judicial branch.  Support for the war from the main opposition parties gives the government some maneuvering space, and maybe an advantage in upcoming elections. 

Meanwhile, under cover of war, attacks on rural Palestinian communities in the West Bank have stepped up.In the South Hebron Hills  two Palestinian brothers were shot by settlers who invaded their land, one was killed, the other severely injured.  

Settler raids are no longer limiting themselves to the small pastoral communities in area C, the less densely populated zone Israeli politicians have been talking about annexing, but extending into the more densely populated areas B, where the Palestinian Authority is nominally in charge.

 In Qaryut, a village  half way between Ramallah and Nablus and surrounded by hardcore outposts, two brothers, one a father of 8, were shot and killed in their own garden by a settler trying to take over their land. The military came and shot teargas at Palestinians to protect the settlers as they got away.  Another settler raid in nearby Khirbet Abu Falah this Sunday shot and killed two Palestinians. The military came in shooting massive amounts of tear gas, another Palestinian was killed by gas inhalation.

 In Gaza, the Rafah crossing, which was opened only for 50 emergency medical patients a day, has been completely closed. The entrance of humanitarian aid was stopped completely for the first three days of the war, and now has partially resumed, under strict restrictions and nowhere near enough to meet needs. 

Israel has also escalated its violence in Gaza, killing 30 in the past 10 days, in shellings, shootings and aerial bombing. Some were killed for stepping too near the yellow line that confines the remaining Gazans to the Western half of the narrow strip, others were bombed in the tent camps, either targeted by Israel or collateral damage, standing (or sleeping) too close to those targeted.

What all these wars, all these fronts, have in common, is the complete lack of a defined goal or endpoint. Israel is pushing at its borders, squeezing Palestinians into smaller tighter spaces, expanding its regional dominance and destabilizing surrounding governments, but to what end?

This is the kind of violence that can only breed more violence. The goals of the war are no longer declared because war itself, its spread, and its perpetuation have become the goal. Like the stone thrown by a fool, all the wisemen will not be able to pull this one out, and the ripples of destabilization, fear, and distrust continue to extend outwards.

As always, the most comforting thing I could find this week was visiting Palestinian friends beyond the separation wall.  The news was worse than usual, the military had raided the neighbours’ house in the night and taken the teenage boys. They were beaten, held for a day or two and released.  A new ‘temporary’ checkpoint had sprung up between the village and nearby Bethlehem, making it even harder to get to work and school and back.

Still, Chatting together, sharing photos of children and grandchildren and laughing at the constant alarms and the ridiculous statements of our leaders (did you know Israel is calling this war “the lion’s roar”? they even made a logo for it) we were reminded again, that we the people of the middle east have so much more in common than our leaders would have us think, not least our complete distrust of those who pretend to lead us, and of the constant fear and divisiveness they sow.

Yahav Zohar is a Senior Partner and tour guide with the Green Olive Collective.